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Abstract
In an effort to ascertain the ideological underpinnings of digital piracy, this study intends to display the development of a viable information gift economy within online piracy communities. Conducting a virtual ethnography of members of a private "warez" community, the author proposes identifying anti-capitalist motivations contained in the ideologies of community members. Central to these tendencies is the cooperation and interaction between these individual members of the community, which signifies the emergence of a unique culture that is quickly becoming normalized within the digital sphere. Discussions of repercussions of distributing American content lead to the potential of a form of cultural imperialism, this one mediated through digital technologies.